Major indexes pulled back sharply on Thursday after new-home sales showed an unexpected drop last month, denting enthusiasm for stocks. After rising more than 84 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.05%
ended off 22.33 points, or 0.2%, at 12,734.63. The index has a slim hold on gains for the week, up 0.11%, according to FactSet Research.

Economic data due for Friday later includes the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment gauge for January at around 10 a.m. Eastern.

“Recently, certain data points have been encouraging and it was notable that the IMF did not downgrade its growth forecast for the U.S. However, with the Fed keeping the funds rate real low till 2014 one wonders if Bernanke and Co. are fully convinced,” said Stephen Pope, managing partner at Spotlight Ideas in e-mailed comments.

Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker said in a statement Friday that he dissented from the Fed’s decision this week to keep interest rates low until 2014 because an increase in rates may be needed before late 2014.

“I expect that as economic expansion continues, even if only at a moderate pace, the federal funds rate will need to rise in order to prevent the emergence of inflationary pressures,” Lacker said in a statement.

In Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum continued on Friday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying Europe needs to build a “bigger, stronger firewall” to resolve the euro-zone soverign-debt crisis.

He added that the outlook for U.S. growth and jobless levels depends on the resolution of that crisis, along with developments in the Gulf due to oil supplies and the direction of U.S. politics.

Shares of Juniper Networks Inc.
JNPR, -0.07%
fell in pre-open trading after the company on Thursday released an estimate of fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings that was below analysts’ estimates.

Shares of Transocean Ltd.
RIG, +2.09%
rose after a U.S. federal judge ruled Thursday that BP PLC
BP, -0.97%
(BP.) must indemnify the oilfield-services firm against compensatory damages linked to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill. However, the judge also said BP wouldn’t have to protect Transocean from punitive damages or civil penalties under the Clean Water act.

Gold futures for February delivery
GC2G
fell $8.10 to $1,718.60 an ounce, while crude oil for March delivery
CL2H
declined 10 cents to $99.6 a barrel.

The ICE dollar index
DXY, +0.36%
which measures the dollar’s moves against a basket of six major currencies, traded at 79.352, down from 79.416 in North American trade late Friday.

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